Harvey Mackay, well-known, irreverent speaker and author of Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty (compare prices), tells you that networking is a full time job no matter your career or business. And, you want to have a professional network established long before you need a network.
Networking is meeting an extended group of people to form mutually beneficial relationships that provide assistance and support over time.
Networking Success Story
When I sought to change jobs before I started my consulting practice, I quickly discovered that my entire network of contacts was other people who were also working in education. This was not a helpful state of affairs when the positions I wanted were in a different field. I had to take the time to extend my network of contacts before my job searching was successful.
The funny end of the story is that after building an extensive network of contacts, an educator did provide the contact that eventually led to my new job in training and organization development. I have retained much of the network I developed at that time, however. I just need to spend more time with them.
Networking and You
You can establish a network of mutually supportive people. Here are 10 reasons why this network is advantageous and the single most important secret that you must understand to successfully network professionally.
Image Copyright iStockphoto / Jacob Wackerhausen
Very interesting post, Susan!
I especially liked the detail about, even after you spent time building up a network of new contacts for your move into a new field, that it was someone from your old occupation in education that ultimately provided you the contact that lead to your new profession.
I think this is a good example of the value of a wide network. Just because one is moving into a new field doesn’t mean that their old network is useless.
Every contact has value for a job seeker, even if it’s not directly obvious.